ADL: Islamophobia goes hand in hand with anti-Semitism

Arutz Sheva speaks with ADL's Sharon Nazarian about anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, and the situation in Europe and the US.

Arutz Sheva Staff, 22/03/18 18:43

Sharon Nazarian

Yoni Kempinski

Anti-Defamation League Senior VP for International Affairs Sharon Nazarian spoke to Arutz Sheva about the rise in anti-Semitism in both Europe and the United States.

"In the last year, there's been a 65% increase in anti-Semitic incidents just in America," Nazarian said. "Our audit was released a month ago, and we are really concerned, including extremist issues on campuses, universities, k-12 schools, where we're seeing swastikas, we're seeing bullying of Jewish students. And so both incidents and attitudes all show that there is a real concern about right-wing extremism spreading through America."

In her opinion, the rise is "coming from all corners" due to "issues of globalization that's concerning people, there's a lot of fear about loss of jobs....there's issues of nationalism and patriotism...fears of people coming in and taking over your jobs."

"This is not unique to America but we definitely see it happening on Facebook, on social media, where these hateful ideas are being exaggerated," she said.

Nazarian also noted that Islamophobia cannot effectively be separated from anti-Semitism.

"In Austria now, you have a political party that's part of the coalition, that has neo-Nazi backgrounds, but its main messaging is anti-migrant, is Islamophobic. But we know that is not separable from anti-Semitism, the two go hand in hand," she emphasized.

"The Polish government understands very well the mess they have stepped into," she said. "We at the ADL have recognized for now over 20 years that the term 'Polish death camp' is in fact inaccurate. But when you ban speech, and when you get into this business of saying what is allowed and what is not allowed to be discussed, you are giving in to the worst of the worst in your society."

"They're just digging a hole, and they're not coming out of it," she concluded.